2017 Sales Trend Research: Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales

Tweet This

Last week my company, InsideSales.com, released its first-ever research report on the State of Sales in the United States and EMEA. The study looked to find out what large companies (which we define as more than $500M in revenue) are doing to accelerate sales.

We developed the study in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), Top Sales World, and the Association of Professional Sales (APS). Readers can access the full executive summary here.

Shutterstock

We gave attention to three things: Structure, Systems, and Process.

Field Sales Are Still Dominant in Large Companies, But Inside Sales is Growing Fast

Face to face or field sales is making up 71.2% of the sales force this year with remote sales or inside sales making up 28.8% of the sales force, but remote selling is increasing to 30.2% projected for next year. Large companies surveyed tell us they are aiming for an ideal inside sales mix averaged at 40.3%, so more growth is forecast.

59.1% of inside account executives are attaining quota, and 65.0% of outside account executives which is 10% higher quota attainment than inside reps.

Big businesses also capitalize more than other sized organizations on the benefits of the channel (selling through partners) with 49.4% engaging in this mode of selling.

Large companies also have the highest number of specialized sales roles (4.4 roles — which is 12% higher than average). Smaller organizations (<$50M) have the highest percentage of inside sales reps (47%) and leverage the outbound sales development or specialized prospecting role more than any other size company.

Perhaps the greatest surprises in the 2017 data are the growing evolution in process between inside sales (in which most selling is handled remotely) and outside sales (in which the reps primarily sell face-to-face). Using census data, we estimate that of the 5.7 million non-retail U.S. salespeople in 2017, 43.5% are inside sales professionals, and 56.5% are field sales reps. That balance is progressively shifting toward equilibrium, as we might anticipate.

The big surprise in this category is that outside sales reps are now spending nearly half of their time (45.4%) selling remotely, which is an 89.2% increase since 2013. Additionally, companies report the primary purpose of inside sales is to create a model that more fully partners with field sales (86.1%).

We mentioned last week that the average number of sales technology solutions companies utilize is rising and is expected to grow from 5.23 in 2016 to 5.80 in 2017 (a 10.9% increase from 2016), and to 6.15 by the end of 2018 (a 2-year increase of 18%).

Spending on sales technology solutions has increased from $2546 per sales rep in 2014 to $4581 in 2017.

Technology is accelerating the pace of sales conversations. The average account executive, in 2017, has 11.9 meaningful conversations a day.

Sales is not a game of luck, and the more organizations can provide structure, support, and systems the faster reps can get-up-to speed and start contributing.